Oscar dreams dashed for Quebec director Xavier Dolan
The Montreal filmmaker's acclaimed feature Mommy is knocked out of the foreign language film competetition
Xavier Dolan's Mommy, Canada's contender for Oscar glory in the best foreign language film category, has been knocked out of the competition for the 87th Academy Awards.
On Friday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed its shortlist of nine films that will advance to the next round of voting and Dolan's drama was not on it.
Eighty-three films had originally been in the running.
The film about a mother struggling with a violent teenage son has won such critical acclaim that Oscar winning actresses Jessica Chastain and Susan Sarandon have reportedly signed on for his next movie.
But Dolan's winning streak seemed to hit a speed bump earlier this month when he failed to earn a nomination for the 72nd annual Golden Globe Awards.
After the news of the Oscars snub broke, the typically talkative Dolan seemed to react with the single worded tweet, "Um.."
Um..
—@XDolanThe foreign language short list is compiled in two phases.
The films that made the first round of cuts are:
- Argentina, Wild Tales, directed by Damián Szifrón
- Estonia, Tangerines, directed by Zaza Urushadze
- Georgia, Corn Island, directed by George Ovashvili
- Mauritania, Timbuktu, directed by Abderrahmane Sissako
- Netherlands, Accused, directed by Paula van der Oest
- Poland, Ida, directed by Paweł Pawlikowski
- Russia, Leviathan, directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev
- Sweden, Force Majeure, directed by Ruben Östlund
- Venezuela, The Liberator, directed by Alberto Arvelo
The next round whittles the contenders down to five finalists which will be announced with the full list of Oscar nominees on Jan. 15 at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The statuettes will be handed out in Hollywood's annual glitzy awards gala on Feb. 22.
With files from The Canadian Press